Anything Gen Z can do, AI can do better … well, actually, only some things. A new Stanford study found that AI is stealing jobs, but only ones that are lower on the career ladder and only in certain fields.

By analyzing ADP payroll data from 2022 (when ChatGPT came on the scene) to this year, Stanford researchers found that employment of 22- to 25-year-olds in AI-exposed fields fell 13%. In line with previous predictions, software developers were hit hard, with the headcount of early-career coders dropping nearly 20% from 2022 to last month. Customer service agents, receptionists and translators also saw sizable drop-offs as more companies tapped agentic AI.

AI’s the New Intern

The impact of AI on unemployment is uneven, Stanford found. In software development, employment for 26- to 30-year-olds has remained flat since the launch of ChatGPT. For older coders, employment actually rose. That could be because AI can’t yet substitute for accumulated knowledge and the unique experiences (tips, tricks, awkward happy hours) gained by individual workers.

In other words, AI still needs a boss:

• AI’s getting better at performing simple tasks — in software engineering, that can mean migrating lines of code or spotting bugs. But AI is still prone to errors, or hallucinations, that human higher-ups have to fix.
• Plus, more experienced software engineers do more than just code — like having meetings with coworkers and clients that inform their work. MIT researchers separately found that AI, which is largely trained on publicly available code, struggled to tailor its output to specific companies’ needs.

Missing Rung: The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell last week, in another sign that fears of an AI takeover may be overblown. Instead, for most workers, Stanford’s researchers said AI can take over the kind of tasks typically done by an intern watching “Survivor” reruns on their second screen. But firing the intern today could hurt companies in the long run (just ask Target), since early-career employees can’t rack up five years of experience if no one’s hiring. Tech companies could lose out on future talent, too, as fearful job-seekers switch to AI-resistant industries like construction and healthcare. Instead, Stanford’s researchers suggested that companies may need to reconsider how early-career hires are trained, with the ultimate goal of AI augmenting human work.

The United States economy isn’t just not slowing down. It grew at a faster pace in the second quarter than previously thought, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

Two key forces were to thank: consumers, who spent more than original estimates, and businesses, which did the same. A corporate shopping spree on artificial intelligence, in particular, boosted the economy like ChatGPT boosts a lazy high-schooler’s take-home essay on Asimov’s I, Robot.

Shopping Spree

The year began with a 0.5% contraction in gross domestic product during the January-to-March quarter, marking the first decline in three years. The primary cause was businesses expediting efforts to beat new tariffs by front-loading imports, which are subtracted from the Commerce Department’s GDP calculations since the foreign production means there’s no US output.

The second quarter saw a healthy rebound, with GDP rising at a 3.3% annualized rate in the April-to-June period, according to the Commerce Department’s update. That’s notable because its initial estimate of 3% issued last month fell narrowly short of the 3.1% expected by economists. And especially crucial is what pushed up the revised figure. First, there’s an important economic term to put in your noggin: real final sales to private domestic purchasers:

• This very useful figure, one Federal Reserve officials keep a close eye on, measures the sales of domestically produced goods and services that are consumed by domestic households and businesses. In other words, it zeroes in on core demand and strips out trade distortions, which is very helpful for measuring the economy amid tariff turbulence: It rose 1.9% in the second quarter, significantly better than the previous estimate of 1.2%.
• The improved GDP estimate was also impacted by a massive upward revision in business spending on intellectual property products, a category that includes software and technology research and development. Spending is now believed to have increased at a 12.8% annualized rate, twice the 6.4% initial estimate and the most in four years, reflecting the massive spending on artificial intelligence.

UBS estimates companies will spend $375 billion on AI infrastructure this year and $500 billion next year.

Unconvinced: “The economy temporarily rebounded in the second quarter as businesses imported less in the second quarter than they did in the first,” LPL Financial analysts wrote earlier this month. “But this should not be construed as an improvement in underlying economic momentum.” The Commerce Department’s revised figures Thursday showed consumer spending up 1.6%, better than the previous 1.4% estimate. LPL analysts added they expect consumer spending to moderate in future quarters, noting rising delinquencies among higher-income consumers — the upside being this could “alleviate inflation pressure (further supporting Fed rate cuts).”

Palantir may own the gold medal and Seagate Technology the silver as the S&P 500’s top two performers this year, but the bronze goes to a gold miner. No joke.

Shares in Colorado-headquartered Newmont, the world’s largest gold miner, have risen 96% in 2025, the third-best performance on the index after Seagate Technology (up 99%) and top climber Palantir (up 109%). The reason isn’t surprising: In a year of economic uncertainty, safe-haven gold is hovering near record prices. But, as Robert Frost said, “nothing gold can stay,” and forecasts suggest a moderation for gold in the years to come.

Lightning in a Bar

Spot gold rose 0.5% as of late Thursday, lifting the lustrous metal above $3,400 per ounce and nearing a three-week high. Not far off the $3,500 record set in April, gold is up roughly a third in 2025, more than enough to buoy Newmont’s balance sheet. In fact, the company reported $1.7 billion of free cash flow in the second quarter, with revenue rising 21% and profit jumping 99%, all despite Newmont’s gold production falling 8% year-over-year during the three-month period.

Earlier this week, Moody’s upgraded the company’s credit rating to A3 from Baa1, something CEO Tom Palmer hailed as a tribute to “the strength of Newmont’s balance sheet and our commitment to a disciplined, balanced approach to capital allocation.” But costs pose a potential short-term handcuff:

• Newmont’s operating costs have shot up since its $15 billion acquisition of Australia’s Newcrest in 2023, in which it took on a slate of new projects. Its All-In Sustaining Cost (AISC), a measure of mine production and maintenance costs, rose 25% from 2022 to last year, when it hit $1,516 per ounce. That has eroded the company’s ability to maximize earnings from record gold prices.
• Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Newmont is considering cost-cutting measures that will likely require terminating thousands of its 22,000 employees. The outlet, citing sources it didn’t identify, said the company aims to cut its AISC by 20%, or $300 per ounce, which would make it competitive with lower-cost rivals.

A Glittering Second Half: Newmont said last year that it planned to shed non-core assets, reduce debt and slim its workforce, so the latest developments don’t come as a surprise. Meanwhile, analysts polled by FactSet still expect strong results for the remainder of 2025, with 60% earnings growth on $20.7 billion in sales, representing an 11% year-over-year increase. JPMorgan forecasts that gold will end 2025 at $3,675 per ounce, and some bulls, noting that the metal traditionally rises when interest rates fall, have suggested that $4,000 in 2025 is not out of the question.